Last weekend, at twilight, my son and I went out to cut some wild flowers that found our way into our landscape.  He knows how much I love having fresh flowers in the house and he was happy to cut them with Papa's red pruners.  As we busied ourselves, rushing to finish before nightfall, my daughter appeared, weighted down with a watermelon quite too big for her to handle.  Somehow, she made it all the way from the watermelon patch to our front porch, having selected just the right the melon.  Her face was sheer pride. We all celebrated! The first watermelon of the season! City Farm brings us many little celebrations.  Many "first fruits. " We are blessed to share them with our City Farm Members and everyone who visits us each Saturday at the Hub City Farmer's Market. Now, time for a sweet watermelon treat!

~Mary

PHOTO BY JASON MEAUX - jasonmeaux.com

From January seedlings to May's still young plants, the day has finally come to pick our first beautiful Tomatoes.  I give myself a pat on the back.   They are strong, beautiful, and healthy.  I spend one day away, ignoring them, while at my other full time job...landscaping.   Upon my return the third day, I discover there are worms sinking their ugly bodies into otherwise flawless flesh.  I kick myself "once" and move on, promising to never go a day without nurturing my babies.

An older man I encountered at the grocery store turned my tomato epiphany into a parenting epiphany.  He smiled as he watched my children climb all over the basket.  He turned to me and said, "Enjoy them while you can, you'll blink and they are out of the house."  His gentle eyes told me that he didn't ignore many days of his children's lives.
~Mark

The solitude and monotony of planting peppers leaves plenty of time for thinking.  This evening was no exception.  Though the mosquitoes were stinging my back, I fought the urge to call it a day and allowed my thoughts to play out...  Some 15 years ago I attended the University of Louisiana's study abroad program in London and France.  During the latter part of the trip, I found myself shut away in my dorm room reading while my classmates were taking in that all London had to offer.  While abroad, I picked up this little book on Beekeeping and I couldn't put it down. I spent that evening and the next day writing to my younger sister to let her know that I had a vision for my future.  The letter is no where to be found, but I recall the outline that contained my goals for living a homestead lifestyle. I was held by the idea of  feeding others and educating people (myself included) about where food comes from.

Tonight my sister took the long walk to our mailbox with me, only to find -fifteen years later- my dream coming to fruition with the first of our City Farm Membership Agreements inside.  Although I feel good about the peppers now in the ground, I feel much better knowing that a Higher Power has allowed this dream to germinate.   

"This is the season when despair may become so deep that only a total resurrection of the universe can be believed possible to melt the snow; but is is also the season for the miracle of faith-faith strong enough to believe even in the prophecy of a seed catalogue, which arrives an exact month before Lent...  We reminisce about the season past, and gradually discover our reminiscences to focus less on what has passed than what is to come."      John F. Adams, Beekeeping:  A Gentle Craft